| ashu |
Posted
on 07-Jan-01 09:53 PM
It's fine and good for Dr. Dahal to sit in the
Midwest America and analyze reams of data
on the American middle class, and come up
with tentative social scientific conclusions
about the American societies. That would be
solid contributions from his side to the
American social sciences.
But I begin to worry when Dr. Dahal extrapolates his
quantitative findings about the American middle
class, and, then, perhaps in a burst of
patriotism, drapes them qualititatively over
the Nepali middle class, especially without
bothering to define what the is Nepali middle
class.
By doing so, Dr. Dahal unwittingly
lends credence to a misguided practice that's too
common in Nepal: the practice of theorizing
about Nepal/commenting on Nepali socities
from data and evidence not unique to Nepal.
I say that because the study of sociology/anthropology in
Nepal has rarely been about studying the 'urbanscapes' -- the vennue where you are most likely to find the
middle-class, howsoever defined. Sure, there have
been surveys, done mostly by marketing firms
that test for taste, appeal of certain products.
But, let's face it, our sociologists and anthropologists
have been so busy studying 'rural-everything' that
the have missed out on analyzing fast-paced
changes occurring in the towns and cities.
Perhaps, time-permitting, in a spirit of content-based kurakani,
Dr. Dahal -- with whom I once had a long discussion
and for whom I have a lot of respect -- could
comment.
oohi
ashu
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